How about that to start the Manny Malhotra regime?

The Vancouver Canucks kicked off the 2026-27 season with a win on the road, beating the Edmonton Oilers by a 6-5 scoreline in extra time. Territorially, this game probably should’ve gone the Oilers’ way, but the Canucks did a fantastic job of battling and capitalizing when they could, where they could. They had a chance to win it in regulation and blew it, but Vancouver dug deep for that overtime winner.

If you haven’t been reading this series, The Statsies is a recap of the game from an advanced stats perspective. This isn’t meant to be a piece that dissects each and every thing that every player does – it just offers an alternative perspective on how to see last night’s game.

Here’s the win, by the numbers.

As always, you can find our glossary guide of advanced stats here.

The game flow highlights Edmonton’s control for most of the game. The CF% share, or xGF% share, was never out of their hands, which makes sense given that the Oilers are meant to be a contending team, while the Canucks have just started their rebuild. It is worth pointing out, however, that through the first two periods, Vancouver split an even 3-3 high-danger chance differential despite being down 15-11 in scoring chances.

The third is where most of the action happened, as after the Canucks got three unanswered, the Oilers pushed right back with their most statistically dominant frame. Vancouver posted a game-low 31.25 CF% and 24.31 xGF% share in that period, giving up a 10-3 hole in scoring chances and a 5-2 deficit in high-danger chances. However, that was only to even the game up, and in overtime, the Canucks controlled all of the action to secure the eventual win.

The heat map at even strength honestly doesn’t look horrible. Yes, the Oilers were all over the Canucks when it came to the volume of chances; the spread of their attempts far exceeded what Vancouver could manage. However, at even strength, despite the 25-17 lead in overall chances, Edmonton barely held an 8-7 edge in high-danger chances. That’s pretty good if you’re looking at it from a Canucks perspective, and especially since 5 of the 8 came in the third-period push. Could it have gone better? Sure, but the Canucks made the most of what they had, especially after being territorially dominated for much of the contest.

Corsi Champ: Luke Schenn finds himself pacing the Canucks in his return to Vancouver, tallying a 65.00 CF% while paired up with Elias Pettersson for the night. It was a classic game for the veteran defenceman, playing quiet, uneventful hockey that kept the Oilers at bay for his time on ice. Schenn was on ice for the lowest xGA on the team with a 0.35, while also managing to hold a 4-3 lead in scoring chances. The only blemish, so to speak, was the 1-2 deficit in high-danger chances, but considering that the Canucks didn’t give up anything with Schenn on ice at even strength, it’s a good night for the third pair.

Corsi Chump: The downside of playing heavy minutes against the Oilers’ top six is the fact that your Corsi numbers will suffer. That’s what happened to Jamie Oleksiak, who brought up the rear in the Corsi department with his 18.92 CF%. On ice for a 2-16 shot differential, it was no wonder that Oleksiak was also present for 3 goals against, recording the team’s second-lowest xGF% of 7.16. That’ll happen with a  2-13 hole in scoring chances – but if it’s any consolation, there were only 3 high-danger chances against in that total. Oleksiak was unfortunately the one who bore the brunt of a potent Oilers attack, and will continue to be a defensive presence the Canucks will be leaning on this season.

xGF: Brock Boeser led the team in xGF%, recording 50.61% as one of only two Canuck skaters to crack the 50% mark. Boeser managed to hold a 7-2 lead in scoring chances and a 2-1 edge in high-danger opportunities, though being on ice for two goals against and just one goal for. The winger benefited from posting the third-best xGA on the team at 0.47 for most of his xGF% share lead.

GSAx: Usually, when you have five goals scored against you, the goals saved above expected number is well into the negatives. But considering how potent the Oilers were, the numbers paint Kevin Lankinen’s night in a better light. Edmonton racked up 4.02 xGF, meaning that with the 5 goals against, the Finn tallied up a -0.98 GSAx. Not great to be in the negatives, but also definitely not as bad as it could’ve been. Of the 5 goals against, 2 of them came from high-danger chances and 2 of them were low-danger, which Lankinen probably would like to have back. Otherwise, he did pretty darn well to stem off a lot of Oilers opportunities, and definitely outbattled Tristan Jarry’s -4.35 GSAx.

Sasson in the matchup: In previous years, we’ve seen either Elias Pettersson or JT Miller go up against Connor McDavid in an attempt to contain the Oilers’ best player. In this go-around, though, Manny Malhotra (who was a defensive matchup specialist himself during his playing days) threw Max Sasson’s lineup against Edmonton’s heavy guns. The numbers might surprise – together, the O’Connor-Sasson-Karlsson trio actually posted the second-best CF% on the team with a 36.36, holding an even 1-1 goal split at even strength. They also recorded the team’s second-best xGF% at 41.33 while only giving up a 2-3 high-danger chance hole. It’s seriously impressive stuff by Sasson and his line (who also generated the best xGF on the team with a 0.73), and surely earns them another look in similar deployment.

The workhorse that is Paul Cotter: It’s not often that a fourth-liner gets his number called for an overtime shift, but Malhotra clearly saw the value that Cotter could bring in the 3-on-3 overtime. It was a gutsy effort throughout the game, with Cotter floating in around team averages in both CF% and xGF%, despite only getting 25% of his faceoff starts in the offensive zone. It probably flies under the radar, but the forward also managed an even 2-2 high-danger chance split at even strength, not getting caved in at all during his TOI. Cotter stayed dialled in and took his opportunities to rack up two goals in his first game as a Vancouver Canuck.

The Canucks looked like a rebuilding team. They also looked gritty and gutsy in getting the result on the road. For the expectations that they had going into this contest, they played pretty darn well and showed flashes of what this new regime is hoping to develop down the line. By no means did the Canucks play a perfect game, especially blowing a 3-goal lead in the third, but credit them for getting themselves into that position in the first place and still managing to win in the end.

Vancouver returns home for the second part of the home-and-home, a rematch against the Oilers at Rogers Arena.